Spanish language Q&A Forum

In the sample question "Cuando vuelva Carlos, dile que quiero hablar con él." why is "quiero" not in the subjunctive tense? Didn't we learn in a different lesson than if a verb comes after 'que' that switches subject that it should be subjunctive? 

In a question requiring the answer "Sevilla es una de las ciudades más bonitas de España" I put en instead of de and was marked incorrect. However, as the lesson states, this isn't incorrect but simply 'less common'. In fact, isn't it so that a closer translation of the 'de' here might be '...one of the most beautiful Spanish cities' rather than '...cities in Spain'?

Here in Puerto Rico, it was suggested to me that one had the flavor of "perhaps" and the other "maybe", but I always forget which is which. 

Why does the accent change from comprárselos to cómpreselos depending on the conjugation? Does the stressed syllable always change in the imperative form? 

Why is it "*por* dónde estaremos" instead of "dónde estaremos" in the sample question? 

Me alegra que ellos sean los primeros. 

Why is this subjunctive? Is it because it comes after "que"? This sentence doesn't seem to express any doubt about their being the first. 

Could I say "me alegra que ser el primero?" if I were talking about myself or would I have to write "me alegra que yo sea el primero"? 

I don’t understand why my answer to this question is wrong, using the present perfect (ha trabajado). My understanding is that the present perfect can be used to describe actions that continue up to the present . May be the question to be translated should be ‘Juan has continued to work in the same company for 5 years’, then only use of the present (trabaja) would be correct. Or have I misunderstood?

Hola Inma,

1. "hacen diferentes actividades [como]" ...The translation offered was "different activities such as ....": I wrote tal como for "such as" and was marked incorrect. My dictionary gives tal como as "such as / for instance" and this seems to be correct for the sentence. My dictionary gives como as "such as" as well, but with the meaning "similar to."  Would a better translation have been "different activities like ......."?

2. This is about the use of "preocuparse de." The translation offered is "since they look after them at all times." I understood that the use of " preocuparse de" indicates that you worry about something in the way of occupying your mind / concerning yourself, while "preocuparse por" indicates that you may be worried about something or someone. The more research I do on this the more confusing it becomes because "ocuparse de" also seems to mean look after someone, and that seems to be closer to the translation. Either way my suggestion of preocuparse por was marked incorrect. 

It would be great to have some guidance on this.

Saludos. John

The title of my question is only an example of several variations I've found on the same theme: when to use reflexive and when to use estar+participle? 

Me sorprendí cuando me propuso matrimonio

Estaba sorprendida cuando me propuso matrimonio

It seems to me that the reflexive above suggests more of an action (it surprised me...), while estar+participle suggests a state (being in a state of surprise).  

Could you explain and demonstrate by example how one might be chosen over the other?  

Also, the reflexive seems to be prompting me to add que+subjunctive (Me sorprendí que me propusiera matrimonio), but the participle version does not.

As you see, I'm a little confused and I wonder if my confusion comes from learning Latin American Spanish? The participle seems to occur more often when I read that variant. 

Saludos a todos

Why is una gata? I thought this is male noun un or el gato.